The Forgotten Salutations

Pretty much everyone is familiar with yoga sun salutations. This one-hour workout introduces moon and earth salutations. You do moon and earth each 3 times – the first time through, Lawrence gives detailed physical instruction; the second time, he explains the purpose of each move; and the third time, you align your breath with each movement. At the end, you do a sun, moon, and earth salutation all the way through one time. It moves very slowly and I have to admit I got a little antsy; however, I also found it very interesting. It is not meant for yoga beginners; Lawrence assumes you already know the individual postures and his instruction is about putting them together in these asanas. One thing I found very irritating is that when you’re doing moon/earth the third time (for breath/movement synchronization), he does not cue at all. You either have to do it from memory or twist your neck to look at the TV. After you’re familiar enough with it, you can, of course, do it from memory, but at first, it’s difficult to know where you should be. Also, he makes a boo-boo at the end when doing the sun salutation – he only does Warrior I on one side. Following the hour-long workout is lecture, but I have not watched that part. I like this workout and recommend it to experienced people who want to add something a little different – but only if you can tolerate the slowness.